Quote-A-Day: Day 136

Nobody respects a braggart. Always let your actions speak for you. #QuoteADay #Day136 #edchat #edu #DoMore #SpeakLess

Bragging will get you nowhere.  Especially in education.  Nobody respects a braggart, if for no other reason than words mean much less than actions.

It’s important, whether serving in a leader or learner capacity to always remember that the best words of recognition are regularly the ones not spoken.  How we act, and what we do, tend to be the true measures of who we are.

When the moment arises where you might feel as if you should speak up about your accomplishments, consider two things:

One, do people already know of these accomplishments?  If so, then why repeat them?

Two, do people really need to know about these accomplishments?  If what you’re about to share isn’t important to others, then it might be seen as irrelevant bragging, which is even worse than bragging that is connected.

How do we prevent ourselves from falling into a bragging frame?  One way is to “pre-reflect.”  Ask yourself what the outcome will be when you share what you are planning to share.  

Another way is to have an “alerter” in your inner circle who can be honest with you at all times.  Sometimes we miss cues that we should have picked up on.  Your “alerter” can let you know at an appropriate time that you erred, and you came across as bragging, when you probably didn’t mean to.

The long and short of it is if we’re learning and leading as we should, then the actions we take will be all the speaking we might need to do on the topic.  After all, better to have stakeholders know the value of your work then have you attempt to convince them of it.